Shut up about Barclay Perkins - British-brewed bottled Lager in the 1950's

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Shut up about Barclay Perkins - British-brewed bottled Lager in the 1950's

Yes, I’m still dodging draught Mild. Look, I’ve still another four posts to bash out so I’ve my trip to the US covered. I haven’t the time to take on anything too complicated.

And you know me and my relationship with British Lager. Never drink the stuff, but keep writing about it. This is a fascinating period for Lager in Britain. When it starts breaking into the mainstream. That’s very evident from a glance at the brewers in the table.

Some are the pre-war pioneers, who went out on a limb to build specialist Lager plant as a time when demand was very limited. I’m thinking here of Tennent, Barclay Perkins and Red Tower. Graham’s probably belongs in that list, too, as I’m pretty sure that was being made at the Alloa Brewery at this point.

Then you’ve got Charrington and Flowers, large regional breweries clearly keen to get in on the Lager act with their own branded products. I’m not so sure either had the equipment to properly bottom ferment at this point.

Carling Black Label is an example of another trend, an emerging national group bringing in a foreign brand. Despite billing itself as Canadian Lager, the example in the table was brewed in Sheffield.

Once again, the examples neatly divide themselves into two groups: 1030º - 1037º and 1040º - 1050º. Interestingly, the whole group comes out with an average OG about identical with the average for all beer consumed in the UK: 1037º.

British-brewed bottled Lager in the 1950's

Date

Brewer

Beer

Price

Acidity

OG

FG

ABV

App. Atten-uation

colour

1957

Graham's Golden Lager

Pilsner Lager

0.04

1030.4

1007.3

3.00

75.99%

11

1956

Red Tower

Pilsner Lager

32

0.03

1031.2

1005.9

3.29

81.09%

10

1954

Steel Coulson

Lager Beer

30

0.04

1032

1004.3

3.60

86.56%

11

1957

McEwan & Younger

"MY" Export Lager

30

0.04

1033.6

1006.3

3.55

81.25%

13

1957

McEwan & Younger

"MY" Export Lager

42

0.02

1033.8

1010.9

2.96

67.75%

13

1958

McEwan & Younger

MY Export Lager

50

0.05

1034.3

1010.5

2.97

69.39%

9

1957

Barclay Perkins

Pilsner Lager

36

0.02

1034.3

1006.1

3.67

82.22%

6.5

1957

Barclay Perkins

Pilsner Lager

0.04

1035

1006.3

3.73

82.00%

9

1957

McEwan & Younger

"MY" Export Lager

0.04

1035.2

1007.3

3.62

79.26%

13

1957

Charrington

Pilsner Lager

34

0.05

1035.5

1006.2

3.81

82.54%

4.5

1957

Graham's

Pilsener Lager

40

0.04

1035.6

1007.2

3.69

79.78%

9

1957

Charrington

Pilsner Lager

42

0.04

1036

1005.8

3.93

83.89%

5

1955

Tennent

Lager

30

0.04

1036.1

1007.7

3.69

78.67%

9

1959

Carling

Black Label

0.04

1036.5

1004.4

4.18

87.95%

80

1956

Flowers

Lager

36

0.04

1040.4

1014

3.41

65.35%

9

1957

Tennent

Lager Beer

66.7

0.04

1040.6

1008.6

4.16

78.82%

11

1957

Flowers

Lager

36

0.04

1045

1017.9

3.50

60.22%

9

1956

Flowers

Lager

42

0.04

1045.3

1014

4.05

69.09%

9

1957

Flowers

Flowers Lager

0.04

1050

1017.5

4.20

65.00%

14

Average

36.7

0.04

1036.9

1008.9

3.6

76.67%

13.4

Sources:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

It’s hard to say much about attenuation, other than that the ones specifically called Pilsner tend to be more highly attenuated.

In terms of value for money, Lager was very poor. The average OG for this set is about the same as Ordinary Bitter, 1037. But that averaged just 16.8d per pint, as opposed to 36.7d per pint for Lager. Even taking into account the difference in price between bottled and draught beer, Lager was still way more expensive than Bitter.

The very low level of acidity is a dead giveaway that these beers were pasteurised. And dead as a door nail in the bottle. Um, yummy boiled sweets flavour.